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Videos: Adam Driver Was The Chillest SNL Host Of All Time
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 27, 2020
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NBC
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 27, 2020
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It's become abundantly clear that Adam Driver has gotten really comfortable—and really good at—hosting Saturday Night Live, which he did for the third time this weekend. He doesn't often get to flex his comedic muscles in his big movie roles, which more-often-than-not lean on his intensity—it's hard to find an opportunity for silly voices in films like Silence, Marriage Story and The Report, or while playing the most emo Sith lord in the galaxy. But he's become one of the most consistent hosts in recent years, and he used his intense reputation to his advantage in his very chill and very excellent Monologue, one of the best of this season. This is what movie star charisma looks like: "I look like a kidnapped person trying to send a message with my eyes."
The first episode of 2020 around him was very enjoyable watch, even if it lacked one sketch as absurdly sublime as the Abraham H. Parnassus one from 2018. My favorite Driver performance of the evening came in the pre-taped music video Slow, an R&B song about lovers taking things a little too slow, and for which Driver's voice was hilariously lowered the entire time.
SNL has had a difficult time wringing good political comedy from their cold opens in recent seasons, no matter how many flashy and random guest stars they throw at the problem. This week's, Alan Dershowitz Argues for Trump Cold Open, featured perhaps the most unlikely cameo yet: Jon Lovitz as Trump's attorney Alan Dershowitz. But the sketch worked once it left the mortal realm and headed straight to hell, where Dershowitz was reunited with his former client and pal Jeffrey Epstein (played by Driver).
He channeled some of his Marriage Story dad energy into Sleepover, in which he tries to figure out who clogged the toilet at a slumber party (which also featured a great Kate McKinnon performance).
The Del Taco Shoot was the rare Beck Bennett/Kyle Mooney live sketch that actually made it to air, and featured a great, creepy Driver character. Your mileage may vary on how funny you find the phrase, "ahh man, I'm all out of cash," but the absurd, insistent repetition had me cracking up.
Kylo Ren went back undercover as intern "Randy" in Undercover Boss: Where Are They Now, a sequel to the Undercover Boss sketch from Driver's first SNL episode in 2016. It seems somehow fitting that his last appearance as Ren would feature him repeatedly saying "Okay Boomer" in between murdering fellow interns.
Driver was impeccable in Medieval Times, in which he played an overeager actor who decides to go off-script for his performance. It also featured a great Bowen Yang moment that had the audience howling.
Check out the rest of the sketches below, including: The Science Room, in which Mikey Day and Cecily Strong got to play two very clueless students; Cheerleading Show was a parody of the insanely popular Netflix docu-series Cheer (Kenan Thompson was Jerry!); and Driver and Cecily Strong played the titular Marrying Ketchups which was a perfect 10-to-1 sketch (even though Halsey technically performed afterwards): "You're not even Heinz, you dirty Hunt."
There were two guests on Weekend Update: Aidy Bryant played travel expert Carrie Krum, and Melissa Villaseñor performed a great song about what unites all the Oscar nominees: white male rage.
Musical guest Halsey (who also appeared in two sketches, Slow & Cheerleading Sketch) performed the pop/country hybrid "You Should Be Sad" and the more generic "Finally/Beautiful Stranger."
J.J. Watt will host next week's Super Bowl eve episode with music guest Luke Combs.
Tagged
comedy
saturday night live
snl
adam driver
television
tv
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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